Dirt
by Yunagirlamy
Summary: 100 theme challenge. If ever her mother found out… The child was four-years-old and a Daddy's Girl. She wouldn't tell on him… would she?


**Author's Notes: Okay, I've been thinking about it—and screw this whole 'going-in-order' thing. Because I had an idea for this theme, and it's, like, number forty-seven on the list. I thought, **_**'No way am I waiting that long.' **_**Just because I have to wait three months (**_**THREE FREAKIN' MONTHS *sobs*) **_**for the film to come out does **_**not**_** mean I have to wait to write stories for it! Besides… I'm rather good at writing Tangled one-shots (with a grin like Flynn's).**

**WARNING: This story… **_**may**_** slightly repulse you. It includes dirt and a child. See if you can guess.**

**Summary: If ever her mother found out… The child was four-years-old and a Daddy's Girl. She wouldn't tell on him… would she? **

**Disclaimer: I actually don't own Tangled, not even in my dreams. I **_**do**_**, however, have two Tangled posters, the official Tangled sticker album, some Tangled stickers, and the official magazine. I'm also signed up to know when the Blu-ray becomes available to order on Amazon UK. (That's right, I'm English bitches!)**

**47. Dirt.**

This was _not_ good. Really not good at all. How could have he let this happen? One minute she was there… the next she wasn't! Even though his brain told him that she had just probably wandered off somewhere (she was a four-year-old child after all), thoughts of her struggling against someone's strong and violent grasp couldn't help but run through his mind.

As Eugene walked – at a _very_ fast pace – through the hallways of the castle, he whispered to himself to calm his nerves. It wasn't working, though. He felt like screaming, tearing his hair out, killing someone. Especially if something had happened to her – he didn't know how he would live with himself if something happened to her. It would all be his fault, he was looking after her—he was her _father_, for crying out loud! How could he do his duty as her father if he couldn't even look after her properly? He would never forgive himself if her small life was stolen away from her.

"How is your game of hide and seek going, Your Highness?"

Eugene stopped pacing—_when did he start pacing?_—and gave a puzzled look to the maid who had spoken; a pretty young girl, one who hadn't worked there very long.

"… _What_?" he asked in disbelief. "What are you _talking_ about?"

A look of realisation came upon the maid's face, along with a slight blush. "Oh! I see. The princess must not have told you that you were playing…"

"You've seen Amelia?" Eugene questioned without hesitation. "Where is she?"

The maid shook her head. "She didn't tell me, sir. In case you would ask."

"Damn it," Eugene muttered under his breath. He couldn't believe he had lost Amelia; he really should not have stayed up all night with Rapunzel, even if it was wild. Whilst watching Amelia draw a picture in her room, he had fallen to sleep and when he'd opened his eyes, his little girl was gone.

He'd nearly freaked out – but he didn't want to attract Rapunzel's attention—she was just as fiercely protective of their daughter as Eugene was. Amelia was the world to them. If her mother ever found out…

The child was four-years-old and a Daddy's Girl. She wouldn't tell on him… would she? Sure, it would take some ice-cream and a promise of a trip into the forest just outside town, but Amelia would _never_ tell on her daddy. She loved him _way_ too much… right?

"Perhaps you should look in the garden, Your Highness. Princess Amelia _does_ love flowers, after all," the maid suggested with a smile.

"_I do know, she is my daughter," _Eugene desperately wanted to tell her, but she did just help him. After all, his mind was so full of panic, he hadn't really thought about where she could have _gone_, just where she could have been _taken_.

So Eugene just nodded his head, told her thanks—and raced over to the garden.

His daughter was as curious as her mother. She loved to explore new places and find new things. She even went down into the dungeons once (that was an incident _nobody_ wanted to repeat). So Eugene knew that Amelia wasn't actually playing hide and seek—she just said it to save her skin. Of course, it didn't work.

Amelia, unfortunately, was just like Flynn Rider. She'd do anything to not get into trouble – her parents knew it wasn't because she was four. No, the little girl was also somewhat… of a kleptomaniac. Sometimes small items – books, cooking utensils, shoes – would disappear; and they would _always_ be found in Amelia's room. It was something both Eugene and Rapunzel (_especially_ Eugene) were trying to break her out of, but the fact was… that girl just loved to thief.

And in a weird way—_a very weird way_, Eugene reasoned—that meant that Amelia was exactly just like the _both_ of them. Because Amelia was a girl, everybody thought that she would only draw her personality from Rapunzel – which offended Eugene very much. But no, she was like each of her parents.

When it came to her looks, however… surprisingly, she inhabited the majority of her facial features from Eugene. The same strong and straight nose, the chocolate brown eyes, the high cheekbones… so _why_ did people comment on how much she looked like her _mother_? Perhaps it was the brown hair that did it.

Eugene turned a corner, walked down a short corridor—and then swung open the door to the garden. Placing hands on his waist (something he had picked up from out of the blue once Amelia turned two), he stared around for Amelia.

The little girl was no-where to be seen, but Eugene wasn't giving up _that_ easily. The garden was _huge_, she could have been anywhere. Eugene knew where to look first—the _flowers_. She was _always_ by the flowers.

Eugene ran over to the flowers – and breathed a big sigh of relief when he spotted his little daughter kneeling in the dirt. Her hands were digging into the dirt and then going up to her face… Eugene _really_ hoped she wasn't doing what he thought she was doing. With a raised eyebrow, he walked a little closer to the girl and cleared his throat in a _"you're-in-trouble" _kind of way that he found he was only able to do once Amelia turned two.

"Oh!" Amelia squeaked, sounding surprised. However, the little girl didn't turn to face him. "You found me, Daddy! Okay, now it's my turn to count an' you go hide! _One_!"

"Amelia…"

"_Two_!"

"Amelia."

"_Three_!"

"Amelia!"

"_Six_!"

"_Amelia_!" He didn't like yelling at her, but the girl would just simply not listen to him.

"Yes, Daddy?"

Eugene crossed his arms over his chest. "Turn around and face me." He heard a prompt sigh from Amelia.

"Okay…" she answered dejectedly. She stood up, and slowly turned to face her father—and what Eugene saw made him want to freak out. Around his daughter's lips was dirt – lots and lots of _dirt_.

"Amelia… have you been eating dirt?" Eugene kneeled in front of Amelia, placing his hands on her arms.

"The rabbit made me do it!"

"What rabbit?"

"It ran away…"

Eugene sighed and swooped Amelia into his arms so that he could take her into a nearby bathroom to clean her.

Well, one thing was for certain: his little girl kept him on his feet.

She would, however, be getting a _massive_ lecture later on not wandering away from him. Of course, _he_ would be getting a massive lecture too—on not letting Amelia out of his sights.

It wouldn't be his wife giving him the lecture, though.

**AN: This is based on what I did when I was about three or four. I was going to write a scene where Eugene would be cleaning Amelia up, but that would have been too mushy. I hope you enjoyed it, anyway.**

**Yunagirlamy, 12.2.11.**


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